My evolution in quilting

A few months ago I saw on Mary’s blog an interesting article on this theme.

Since I am working on a few projects but I can’t post about them yet…here are a few pictures that illustrated my way in quilting, started eight years ago.

At that time, I did not know anything about quilting, did not have quilting friends, did not have Internet on my computer !
After a few months I bought my first quilting book but I didn’t understand too much at first ! So, here it is my adventure in quilting,
from this quilt ………………….. to this !

The quilt below is the first quilt I ever made. It is 20″ x 20″ and is made of 400 squares of 1″. I used scissors to cut all the patches. I didn’t know that I could stack multiple layers of fabric so I drew every single square on fabric.
It has no batting (at that time adding batting between the two layers of fabric was a strange thing for me) !
It was made using polyester fabrics. Every patch was becoming smaller after every touch of the iron so it was a nightmare matching them.

But I was very proud of my design drawn on paper with colored pencils !The second experience was a little better – I used a heavy cotton canvas ! But I pieced diamonds ! No batting again !How about these “Y” seams ? I tried them, too ! And I sewn every seam at least three times (using my sewing machine, I am a machine quilter ) until I was content with the result! I was in heaven when I made my first order at a quilting store in USA. What a challenge to choose from hundreds of fabrics !
Special fabrics need a special pattern so I made a Mariner’s Compass ! I used templates (from a Fons and Porter book). And I added batting, but I ironed the final quilt ! What a mistake ! But the quilt was OK !

It was a pleasure to make this Christmas quilt, with different stars ! Here it is a picture before quilting ! At that time I was thinking I have to bind the quilt before quilting !

This one below is the only quilt I quilted by hand. It’ s only 40″ square but I quilted on it for one long week. Then I understood that hand quilting is not for me !

In the first months of my quilting adventure, I spent a lot of time working together with all my three sisters. They all helped me with piecing. What a wonderful time ! We would have worked day and night ! Here are a few of those quilts:And this is the first bed quilt I made. I used scissors to cut all the 1300 pieces. Pieces were sewn and unsewn because the center of the stars didn’t lay flat (due to over-ironing). I did all the ironing on a glass table. The glass was so thick so I though there will be no problem 🙂 But finally I broke it !

5 people worked for 5 hours to make the sandwich for quilting ! I think this was the hardest work my family did for my quilting !

Now, after eight years of quilting, I didn’t have enough patience to make another Mariner’s Compass or to sew “Y” seams ! I like to make simple things and quick and easy quilts !
But I still have patience to make my shadow trapunto quilts. I will never be bored of making them.This is the most challenging quilt I have ever made.

I enjoyed seeing your quilts. I can’t even imagine cuting out 1 inch squares with scissors. Each and every quilt is lovely and it makes it nice they all bring memories back to you.thanks for SharinghugsSusan

I am so glad I found your site. Your shadow trapunto quilts have inspired me to try making one. Do you have a book or tutorial that you recommend that I begin with. I’ve read your post on making the wreaths and glanced over the posts with the shadow trapunto quilts and saw in the one dated April 9 2008 that you are actually stitching the batting down then trimming it away. I look foward to learning more.

hi geta, thanks for the comment in blog. I will start IT Skills with office administration. It just to get some NQ (National Qualification). I need some to go to university. I loved your post today. Have a nice week

What a charming story…a life time story….I was smiling at your first quilt and laughing reading about those “too well-known” mistakes I also done ;)and….I LOVE your first shadow trapunto quilt…. I mean “true-love” 😉

I was thinking that most of us travel at a slow pace along the quilting journey. But you, with obvious natural talent beyond words, seem to have speed right to the head of the pack. Your work is superb and has been from the beginning. Thanks for sharing your talents with us.

I just found your blog and I'm so glad I did! How encouraging to see your journey as a quilter! Your shadow trapunto quilts are amazing. I want to try to make one now!! Quilting is new to me too (less than a year), but art quilting or things that are less traditional are so appealing. Keep up the good work on the blog, Greta. Can't wait to read more!